MISSOULA - An organization whose mission is guiding people through the challenges of cancer has a new home base in Missoula.
Cancer Support Community (CSC) hopes to be a touchstone for anyone who is at any point in their cancer journey through free programs and support.
It’s also a place where the door is always open.
“As soon as I walked up the steps, I thought ‘Oh, this is it. This is the place’,” said Odette Grassi, the CSC executive director in Missoula.
You can smell fresh paint inside the old brick Cold Springs schoolhouse where board members are getting the facility ready to open.
“We, our Missoula community, needs a door for people to be able to walk through. A place where they can walk through, sit down, learn things, be empowered by knowledge, be sustained by action be supported by community,” noted Grassi.
Following years of organizing and ongoing fundraising, CSC now has a home base thanks to a short-term lease with Missoula County Public Schools; and they hope it turns into a longer relationship.
"We hope to become that kind of centralized place where someone can walk through the door and say, I don’t know what to do next,” Grassi said. “And I can say, let’s sit down and talk. Did you know about this program, did you know about that program?”
Once the renovations are complete, the old school building will become a center for answers and support.
Grassi loves the building saying it feels like a home while having enough room for the programs it will offer. CSC had online programming with help from the Bozeman chapter but this will be face-to-face support for anyone touched by cancer.
"A place here where if you need to just sit, you can. If you need to talk, you can. If you need to cry, you can. If you need to laugh, you can,” Grassi concluded.
Learn more about Cancer Support Community in Missoula at this link: https://cancersupportmontana.org/missoula/
